I Believe…

While I was flipping through the channels, I came across the new Macy’s Christmas commercial with Queen Latifah. Macy’s is launching a campaign themed “Believe.” The push emphasizes the spirit of Christmas and the hope that steams from belief.

The campaign draws inspiration from the famous “Yes, Virginia” letter that ran in the New York Sun in 1897 in which a little girl wrote the newspaper asking if Santa Claus was real. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” responded journalist Francis Church, who made the case for believing in things like love, beauty and joy, which are invisible yet exist nonetheless.

The editor, Francis Church, was given an opportunity to rise above the simple question and address the philosophical issues behind it. He wrote, “The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and un-seeable in the world”.

The Bible speaks of the temporary existence of that which is seen, but speaks of what is unseen as being eternal. (2 Corinthians 4: 18) Some of the most real realities are found not with the human eye. Faith is that which is not seen, but yet is evident in other ways. I dare to dream and imagine a world without slavery, a neighborhood where people share what they have so those without can have something.  I believe its possible for children without hope to find it again. Belief is a compelling thing that causes us to act on behalf of what is not, in hopes of what could be. It produces in me a confidence that wrongs can be made right, that things once broken can be healed, and that which has lost its purpose can be re-purposed. These and other unseen realities provoke the “God Seed” in me, and I find faith to keep pressing in on that which is not seen. There is something built into the nature of creation that hopes, and when we join our faith together, love conquers hate.

The story of our individual lives also builds our faith and creates a case to believe. Our stories are like a book being written. The unwritten part of our story creates the space for what is not to still be realized. I choose not to lose hope, because my story is still being written. I choose not to lose faith, because as long as there is breath in me, the redemptive part of my story is still being told. When I look back over the written parts of my life, I find the courage to keep believing. Remembering the written parts of my story gives me confidence to dream about the unwritten parts. I think the editor of Virgina’s letter got it right when he wrote, “”The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.”

As part of the holiday campaign, Macy’s stores also will host “Believe Stations,” which will include a “Believe Meter” to measure holiday spirit. The stations also will be receptacles for letters to Santa. Macy’s has pledged to give a dollar for every such letter — up to $1 million — to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to chronically ill children. Have you ever contemplated what it might look like to believe in something, and that belief fueled a movement that changed the life of others?  That is what the advent season is. Because God so loved, He sent His Son, and those who choose to believe in Him will live forever. Behold a child is given, and the goverment shall be upon his shoulder, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Collaboration…What You See is What You Get!

I have heard it said that what you see is what you get. Living in my neighborhood has given me a whole new understanding of what that means. As I survey the landscape, I can be assured that the urban decay brought on by cycles of disinvestment, poverty brought on by a broken welfare system, loneliness brought on by fear, addictive behavior brought on by the breakdown of family, will continue unless a new vision can become reality. I long to see something different, and we are beginning to see transformation talking place.

The idea of a vision and a people succeeding has a lot to do with the power of collaboration. The work I do in my neighborhood depends on my ability to develop relationships and identify assets already found in the neighborhood in individuals and groups. Then, by working with local neighbors, this information is used to help create a new vision for a livable neighborhood. Collaboration is the only way I know to get the job done, because the work is too great to go it alone and others need to see what could be in order to fight for what is needed. Collaboration empowers people to take responsibility for their own lives. It helps neighbors to help their neighbors and moves them from welfare and relief to empowerment. It focuses on assets found in the neighborhood, which fosters local ownership of the problems urban neighborhoods face.

Collaboration is the ability to multiply each others’ strengths, and to produce a result that no party could have achieved alone. Newer, never before seen capability, as well as new opportunities, are the hallmark of true collaboration. When  collaboration is valued, each member will contribute to the mutually agreed upon objectives and goals. The outcome is, “We did it together”.

Why form a collaborative effort?

• It is a relational way of operating between organizations who desire to see change take place.
• Much more can be accomplished through the combined effort of the entities than can be accomplished alone.
• It cuts down on the tendency to reinvent the wheel as people and organizations learn from each other.
• It encourages the use of complementary gifts and allows pooling of resources.
• Fewer resources are used as organizations draw upon each others resources to accomplish the agreed goals.
• It allows for the real development of the power and potential within the group.
• New ideas come from letting people work things out themselves. This is an attribute of the whole, not of the individual members.

I have been working to develop the Social Innovators Consortium as a way to harness the power of collaboration to confront the complex issues we face in our community. The Social Innovators Consortium helps incubate ideas, projects and new initiatives that can address the systemic issues in our city. The beauty of this is found in the co-creative nature that emerges through the collaborative process.

Funding for social innovation can be tough. Economics and the need for finacial funding can be a tough reality because transformation takes time and incramental change is difficult to quantify. One of the powerful realities that comes through collaboration is the fact that together is more and alone is less. There are innovative ways to go further with less. When we share finacially to accomplish the collective dream, we find the resourses needed. The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5000 points to the truth that when we share what we have, we find more than enough. I can also say that when organizations decide to collaborate, we find that when one moves, the others move like gears. Each organization at the table benefits from the provision and success of the other. Collaboration has the power to end competition between people and organizations because the social reality is when one takes two steps forward we all move forward, and thats a win for all. In the story of the 5000, we find that there were baskets filled with leftovers, and as we learn to collaborate more for transformation, we will have leftovers we can share. When people commit to the process, understand who they are and what they can bring to the table, we have a powerful formula for change.

Neighborhood Organizing for Transformation.

We all live somewhere. As such, we share a unique collection of problems and prospects in common with our neighbors. My neighborhood is undergoing a remarkable renaissance, and working with others for its transformation has been fulfilling in many ways. My friend, Johnny, often speaks about the tripping edge of life. This is not the cutting edge, but rather the other edge you trip over on your way to the next thing. I tripped into neighborhood organizing and found a powerful way to live and contribute.

Tucked behind the imposing gothic buildings and high-powered enterprises of historic New Haven, Connecticut is a poor, ethnically diverse city with forgotten urban neighborhoods working to be reborn. My neighborhood, Fair Haven, may have a nice inviting name but its interior is tough and somewhat dysfunctional at times. Throughout the years, there have been multiple attempts at urban renewal; however, today Fair Haven continues to work through many complicated issues such as poverty, prostitution, and drug trafficking. I help provide leadership for the urban neighborhood association that many of my neighbors and I launched a few years ago.

The work of organizing has brought to me many growing and learning opportunities that have redefined my leadership and helped me imagine in real practical ways how a neighborhood can be transformed. The past few years have brought many wonderful success stories, and real friends have been made along the way. Three words have defined my learning around neighborhood organizing:  People…Place…Presence.

Neighborhood organizing is about the power of People:

The work we are doing is relationship-based organizing rather than issue-based organizing. When the issue becomes what we organize around, often once the issue is resolved, the work loses its momentum. When people are placed at the center, and the work of relationship is prioritized, what can be accomplished is exponential. People working together on decisions that affect their community is relationship-based organizing. Communities are strongest when everyone is engaged and involved in decision-making, and when neighborhood residents work to define their own community agendas. It can be a bit like stone soup, with everyone bringing their contribution. We cook it up on a fire that must be maintained and not allowed to get too hot. Once everyone has shared their ingredients, there is a feast for all to enjoy. What I observe is a neighborhood group that acts as a vehicles for making connections between people, forums for resolving local differences, and a means of looking after one another. Most important, they can create a positive social environment that can become one of the best features of a place.

Neighborhood organizing is about Place:

Places carry purpose, and I believe that a place carries a redemptive purpose. It is important to define the space you intend to fight for. The work we do then becomes important to the story that is unfolding their. Because transformation is wholistic, it requires us to think in terms of the land, its people, and the dreams longing to be realized. I worked for two years just to learn the history of New Haven, and I listened to the individual stories of people living in my neighborhood, before I could fully begin to understand why my neighbors felt the way they did. Sometimes organizing for transformation requires mediating the conflicts and social wounds of the past in order to bring peace to the land and its people. Its hard to imagine a future of hope when we still hurt from the pain of the past.  We are working to help our  neighborhood grow safer, healthier, more stable, prosperous and ultimately more peaceful.

Neighborhood Organizing is about Presence:

Participation in neighborhood affairs builds on a recognition of “here-we-are-together”, and a yearning to recapture something of the tight-knit communities of the past. The issues we face are not having enough good ideas, the issues we face are a matter of access, infrastructure, scale, and impact. We are reconceiving community, by working together and establishing our community presence. When this happens, it brings about a larger scale of impact through collaboration. The problems that neighborhoods deal with are complex systemic social issues that cannot be solved through one individual and without a sustained committed presence. One person can do something, but to make a systemic impact that produces lasting change within a complex system, that requires the collaborative efforts of multiple individuals and organizations with diverse skill sets to come up with a holistic solution. Meeting together, sharing ideas, making our presence known and felt, while delivering practical help and solutions to complex problems, is what organizing for transformation is all about.

One powerful example that people, place and presence serves our efforts in transformation is found in the findings of Dr. Earls. Dr. Earls, a 61-year-old professor of human behavior and development at the Harvard School of Public Health, conducted a ten year study in the history of criminology. Dr. Earls and his colleagues argue that the most important influence on a neighborhood’s crime rate is neighbors’ willingness to act, when needed, for one another’s benefit, and particularly for the benefit of one another’s children.  And they present compelling evidence to back up their argument. “Will a group of local teenagers hanging out on the corner be allowed to intimidate passers-by, or will they be dispersed and their parents called? Will a vacant lot become a breeding ground for rats and drug dealers, or will it be transformed into a community garden?” Such decisions, Dr. Earls has shown, exert a power over a neighborhood’s crime rate strong enough to overcome the far better known influences of race, income, family and individual temperament.

The work is rewarding and yet demanding. We are working to tackle the issues around economic development while attempting to stem “cycles of disinvestment” in the business corridor of our neighborhood. We are working to improve communication between neighbors and provide events and activities for families and their children. We have worked with city leaders and organizations to help address issues and find working solutions to problems we face in our neighborhood. I look forward to this coming year and the efforts being made to strengthen the transformational process in our neighborhood.

Who Cares?….My friends do.

Earlier this year I was chatting with a friend over tea and biscotti at a local coffeehouse.  She asked me what I thought I might want to do with my life – or at least to aim for in the near future.  It only took me a moment of thought to reply that I wanted to keep doing what I was already doing.  Not that there wouldn’t be minor corrections to my path in the course of living, of course, or that in the midst of the over-arching scheme of things that there wouldn’t always be fine-tuning.  But in general, I told her, “I am doing what I want to be doing.”  And as I said those words, I realized that this was an unusual statement for anyone to make, let alone for me to do so.

Hi – my name is Aiyana, and Ken has asked me to write a post for his blog about my Make Believe experience.  I attended a Make Believe in New Haven in 2006, but to give you the full picture, I’ll have to go back a bit further than that.

About five years ago I went through a bit of a personal identity crisis.  My husband and I had just made the decision to relocate to a different state where he would assume an executive position which would utilize his skills and talents well.  In leaving, however, we were also leaving our posts as missionaries with YWAM, the organization that I had been with since leaving high school twelve years before.

My entire adult life I’d been on staff with them, and although during those years when my kids were babies I had taken a back seat from  the day-to-day operations of our mission center, now, in leaving, I would be a true stay-at-home mom for the first time.  My children were two and four years old, and my elder child was just beginning pre-school; within a year both kids would be in pre-school at least half-days.  What would I do with myself?  Get a job?  What kind of job, though?  Go to school?  What would I study?

These questions led to other, more difficult and unsettling ones: what kind of job would suit me?  What were my skills?  Interests?  Talents?  And, oh, dear – this led to the mother of all questions: Who am I?

Then, like a godsend (actually, I am pretty sure it was a Godsend), I started to hear talk about Groundworks running a Make Believe course here in New Haven.  I had known about it, of course, since my husband had been a part of the formation of Make Believe several years before, and the previous year he had taught in the first course run in England.  So, when the first Make Believe began in New Haven in the winter of 2006, it didn’t matter that we had moved three hundred miles away – I was so there.

I suppose I had had a bit of a head-start on the process of self-evaluation that takes place in the course, since I had spent the previous year and a half trying to figure out who I was and what my place in the universe might be.  But there’s something about walking, and working, through questions with other people that allows for multiple angles of sight.  I imagine it somewhat like the difference between standing with a hand-held mirror, trying to see yourself by craning your neck this way and that to see every part of you, and standing in a funhouse hall of mirrors, in which you see every part of yourself reflected all around you.  It’s not always a barrel of laughs to see yourself this way, this is true, but you do see loads more than you would usually see.

And so began my journey. . . I learned – and remembered – a lot about my self during that time.  I remembered how much I loved to travel; I love seeing new places and exploring them, getting out of my own little world.  I learned that I was passionate about doing something to help people who are without hope or opportunity – people who are stuck in extreme poverty and vulnerable to injustice.

In the midst of this journey of discovery, a friend asked me if I would consider joining her in the start of a non-profit called WhoCares? whose mission would be to give hope and opportunity to the world’s poorest and most marginalized people.  I had known a bit about what she was doing, and so when she asked me, there was no hesitation.  I said, “Yes!” almost before the words were out of her mouth.  (Ok, that’s not literal, since she had asked me in a letter, but, still.  You get the picture.)

And so that is what I’m doing.  I work with WhoCares?, and currently am traveling to Cambodia about twice a year, bringing support to a local organization there and helping others to form similar partnerships (you can see more about it at www.whocaresonline.net).  Of course, although I love what I am doing, I know that I have not arrived – life requires frequent re-calibrations.

I suppose that’s another way that the Make Believe experience permanently altered my worldview.  It not only helped me walk through an initial figuring out of who I am, it also gave me tools to continue figuring it out with other people . . . one day at a time, for as long as we all shall live. . .

Who Cares is a wonderful movement that found its legs in our Make Believe course.

Mind The Gap

If you have ever been to London and have taken the underground subway to get around the city, you have most likely seen a sign that says “Mind The Gap”. The signs serve as a reminder to pay close attention to the space between the platform and the underground car. A toe or heel caught in the gap can result in a painful fall, let alone an embarrassing moment. Reflecting upon this brought me to conclude that it would be helpful to have this same message posted around me  in several strategic locations as a reminder. There are gaps that concern me.  Some of the gaps I often find are found between one another, between the church and pre-believers, and the gap between heaven and earth.

It seems that I am always stumbling over the gaps in my life. I find them everywhere – or perhaps they find me. There is the gap between one another. In my ethnically diverse neighborhood I find gaps between people. These gaps are often economically and racially created. Its these relational gaps that need special attention. Jesus, who humbled himself and came to earth as a man, came to live among us and to bridge the gaps that we’ve created. I’m always challenged to set aside my assumptions about others and come alongside of those I often misunderstand. How can we be effective in our kingdom work if there is need of reconciliation in our relationships? Shortly after we arrived in New Haven, we found ourselves having to step aside from the church planting work we thought we came here to do. In the process, there was misunderstanding and hurt feelings. Both sides agreed that it would be good to have our pain mediated by another, so we asked a mediator and a friend from England to come and walk us through that process.   This exercise brought great healing to the relational breach that was created in the rupture of relationship. I have often reflected back to that decision, to face the pain and disappointment, as a stake in the ground for us, and a righteous act that kept away the adversarial noose around our neck. We were able to move on and find blessing for the work that followed.

Then there is the gap between the church and pre-believers.  Often I find the church wanting people to believe before they belong. The gap continues to spread as the church demands that people believe, behave, and then belong. I have found that as we travel alongside of pre-believers into life, we find that the gap begins to narrow. And as our stories are shared and understood, the bridge can be built. It could be argued that perhaps Jesus’ own disciples didn’t believe until much later in his ministry. Jesus allowed them to belong and participate in the journey and discover the truth he came to share.

As we work in New Haven to mind the gap between heaven and earth, I am longing to see practical ways for God’s kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven. We live as priests in our neighborhood serving and working to mind the gap. We engage in practical ways to usher the breath of God to come and sweep the streets of our city. We create gathering places for our neighbors to meet, play, and build together. We help steward the dreams of God in others by helping people make a social difference. Ezekiel 22:30 says, “I looked for a man among them who would stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, but I found none”.  God is looking for us to mind the gap, but often we are so busy with our programs in the church or our busy lives that we never act upon the dream God has placed in our hearts. A missional act or initiative that places us in the gap and brings the peace of God to earth is central to fighting the injustice that breaks the heart of God.

Minding the Gap is an intentional reminder of the way I am to go. There are so many opportunities around me everyday, and I have been asking for spiritual eyes to see the gaps I often miss or simply step over. What do you see? How can you mind the gap? What is your missional initiative, and in what practical ways can you help bridge the Gap? I invite you to travel with me and please leave a commit concerning the gaps you see in front of you.

So, “What do you do?”

The other day I reconnected with an old friend from grade school days. In the process of our conversation she asked me what I did. I thought for a moment and said to her, “That’s a hard one to answer.” There is no simple answer. My life vocation was once easy to answer, “I am a Pastor”.  I was a Pastor in Dallas for 15 years and one day about 5 years ago I decided if I wanted to go for my dream, and do even more with my life, now was that time. Don’t get me wrong I loved being a Pastor in a large church but there was more in me to do.

I wanted to incarnate mission living in a new context, and help model and train others to see what they did in their vocational work as sacred and missional. I truly wanted to try and live what I had been telling others to do. I asked the question of myself, “Why, once called into ministry, do we find secular employment so onerous? Perhaps we would more eagerly engage in “tent making” if we realized for whom we were making the tent.

My approach was to move my family to a part of our nation where I felt we could make an impact and live as change agents. So now I live on the east coast and do a number of things. We live by faith and have found others who see our work as missionaries to our city something worth investing in. Over the years I have also been a “tent maker so to speak” doing contract work that fits with in my missional aims with out compromising who I am called to be and contribute.

I have found favor in our city and work with others on economic development plans helping to stimulate growth in my urban neighborhood. I help lead an Inter city urban Neighborhood association to try and transforming the neighborhood that I live in. This work has taught me so much and helped me explore new ways of mission living. The work I do in my neighborhood also has afforded me opportunities to still function as a Pastor without a church of my own. Over the years I have prayed with people married couples baptized individuals and walked with people through broken messy issues. Jesus did not purchase a ministry center to contain his work, Jesus purchased with his life lost sinners. I have come to realize that those things, however needful and necessary, for which God asks us to spend our money on, are not the things for which God asks us to spend our lives.

My work also involves developing a social mission incubator to help launch entrepreneurial ideas that have the power to change the city I live in by finding real sustainable solutions to social problems. I also teach a missional vocational training course at Yale University called “Make Believe” helping students discover how to live a social mission inside their vocation. This course has been taught in Europe and Dallas Texas as well.

I travel some providing organizational coaching for non-profits and for-profits. I also travel around the world providing spiritual direction for groups on trips designed to help them find space to connect with God pray and explore creation while encountering fresh perspective for life back home. These pilgrimages are a powerful way to disciple others and help them find God in deeper ways. My last trip was to Ireland where I lead 43 people. Over the years, there are about 50 countries I have now visited.

Finding language to summarize this is not easy but when I add it all up I say it this way. “I am a Son …who stewards the dreams in others. I steward the dreams of others so the seeds of Gods kingdom can be realized on earth as it is in heaven.
I am committed to laying foundations. My goal is to help facilitate emerging visions that aim to transform each sphere of society. I am committed to creating space for others. I open doors for pioneers, creative’s, early adopters, practitioners and marketplace leaders. I am committed to a life of collaboration. I believe that life is enhanced through quality relationships, and more is accomplished together than alone.” My life journey with God has been filled with twists and turns, ups and downs but in it all I have never lost who I am.

Every day is a great adventure living this new and different life in the Northeast. I know the work I find myself doing is good and foundational to the future that awaits me. I choose to live in the now and discover what is ahead.

What’s a Social Mission?

The Social mission work that we are doing in New Haven continues to be an exploration of how one might approach city wide social transformation. We are increasingly finding ways to bridge injustice and bridge the issues that are effecting the poor, the marginalized, and grass root neighborhood communities. We have been working to develop a business incubator that can help launch new non-profits as well as help entrepreneurs wanting to launch an initiative with a social mission. For more information about our incubator check out www.socialinnovatorsconsortium.com

Often I am asked the question, what is a social mission? A social mission is simply looking at mission aims that have the power to address social issues and help heal the ills of society. God invited us to a relational journey. He intended us to disciple the nations. We are simply asking the question how might I start with my city. God loves cities and they play a distinctive role in the collective process of seeing our nation discipled. We want to help steward the next wave of missionaries. Social entrepreneur’s are one example of this new kind of missionary.

Check out this video and learn how a social Entrepreneur helped launched once upon a school…

Why “Social” Entrepreneur?

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.

Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:

• Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women’s Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
• Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India’s untouchables and landless.
• Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
• Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions.
• John Muir (U.S.): Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.
• Jean Monnet (France): Responsible for the reconstruction of the French economy following World War II, including the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC and the European Common Market were direct precursors of the European Union.

“A social entrepreneur is a person using entrepreneurial skills to look for new solutions to create social value, not necessarily to make money or create a new product,” The social economy usually develops because of a need to find new and innovative solutions to issues (whether they be socially, economically or environmentally based) By using social mission solutions to achieve not-for-profit aims, it is generally believed that the social economy has a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable, and prosperous society.

Successful social mission organizations can play an important role in helping deliver many key objectives by:

• enabling individuals and communities to work towards regenerating their local neighborhoods,
• showing new ways to deliver public services,
• helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship.

My idea for helping disciple a city is to help steward the God seed in others and help those seeds grow into social mission objectives. Social entrepreneurs and their good deeds have become a hot topic in recent years. But these socially conscious go-getters hardly invented the idea of using talent and money to improve the lives of others. This is what Jesus taught us to do. I believe that when we take pre-believers with us into our social mission work we just might awaken something in them that bridges the gap in their faith. If we can help others find their social mission and discover how to contribute to Gods dream and redemptive purpose we might just begin to see real transformation.  What are you dreaming about? Could you be carrying a God seed that needs to be incubated? Your dreams really do matter to God.

The Way of Pilgrimage:

I just returned from Western Ireland where I lead a group of 43 from a church in Charlotte N.C. on a pilgrimage. Many ask me, what is a pilgrimage? Scripture invites us to set our hearts on pilgrimage. A pilgrim is one who does not live as though this is their home, but rather as a place they find themselves traveling through. These places become class rooms where God instructs and whispers our daily direction. When we set our heart on pilgrimage we posture ourselves for growth, discovery, and perspective building. A pilgrimage is marked by moments of wonder, exploration and encounter moments with our savior. As I lead this group of pilgrims, I become a spiritual director helping them see what often is missed in the everyday. As a pilgrim travels, they begin to find the thin places where heaven and earth seem to collide, allowing them to glimpse the other side. These are moments of wonder that we can experiencing every day. Sometimes getting away becomes the best way to remove the distractions so we can see clearer.

Off of the western wilds of Ireland, stand the Cliffs of Moher. This magnificent precipice looks toward the Atlantic and for ages, Irish monks came to this lonely spot praying and waiting for the coming kingdom. I took the pilgrims from Christ Episcopal there and gave them the opportunity to take time to soak in the beauty and to journal their thoughts. The following is what one pilgrim had to say about their day together.

“Today our group visited the small town of Doolin. We spent an hour checking out the shops and eating lunch before we began our hike to the Cliffs of Moher. We started out on a gravel road and after awhile we  turned off on to a grassy trail that led us along the cliffs edge towards the cliffs of Moher. The views where really pretty awesome. As we walked the cliffs grew higher and higher above the sea below. Our view morphed into one which became more and more spectacular. About half way up it was easy to tell that everyone was amazed by what we where seeing. We where hiking on the edge of 800 ft cliffs seeing panoramic views of the Irish sea along with the rolling hills of the Irish country side. No one could stop talking about the beauty of what we where seeing. Many of us agree that this was one of the best experiences of our lives. The freedom and peace which you feel on those cliffs knowing that we where witnessing one of the most beautiful and spectacular vistas is an experience which can’t justifiably be described with words. It is truly a feeling of wonder and awe at the natural beauty of Gods creation.”

As we arrived together for a moment of reflection, the pilgrims were asked to ponder upon how the Cliff’s can be a picture of God.  Majestic, terrifying, glorious, dangerous.  Many in the world today have lost a healthy fear of God.  The book of Proverbs proclaims that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  The fear of God is the ability to both call Him Abba Father and yet be utterly awed by Who He is.  It is to look into the face of God and live- to behold His beauty and majesty in a reverence that causes a mind-altering silence. This is the experience that griped these pilgrims from Charlotte N.C. A simple walk followed by a reflection and a powerful invitation to apply that moment to their life. A pilgrimage is always about inviting the pilgrim to ask the question, “In light of this revelation how then shall I live?”

When I travel with pilgrims I always blend service to the trip. This Leaves a legacy of sacrificial love and service in the places we visit and in the lives of the pilgrims who travel with us. This can be a service project that creates space to work and give back to the place that is speaking to us as we travel. I also create cultural encounters as well. A cultural encounter can be more like experiencing the people and how they live. This can be a powerful way to discover the blind spots that our own culture so easily hides from our eyes. This time away with God is a beautiful time to pray, think, and imagine the life God is intended us to live as we travel this temporary life.

Each year I am given the opportunity to lead groups to amazing places and put them in the story God is writing. This is a great gift and one I love doing. Should you like to experience a pilgrimage for you and your group of friends leave me a comment and who knows maybe we will find ourselves traveling the road together.

Dance with my Daughter…

New Haven Ballet recently invited my daughter to participate in something called “Shared Ability” dance workshops for students with physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities. The workshops pair these students with dancers from the New Haven Ballet Company for a fun and stimulating 90 minute program of warm up exercises, movement studies, and shared improvisations. A few girls from Madison’s Ballet company volunteered to participate in the program.

When Madison was three years old she started dance classes. This from a child that didn’t walk until she was 18 months old, but when she did she started dancing her way through life. When my daughter dances time stops for me. My daughter Madison is amazing on the stage, leaping, twirling and gracefully useing her body to tell a story.  We have four children and each one enjoys a healthy normal life. When Madison was asked to take part in Shared Ability she came face to face with the real reality of living with disabilities.

I think that encounters in public between people with disabilities and those without are a kind of dance, often awkward and full of nonverbal messages, meanings and misunderstandings. We are a frightened people. And, of course, the big question is, why are we so frightened of people with disabilities? I think it is because we don’t know what to do with our own pain, so what do we do with the pain of others? We don’t know what to do with our own weakness except hide it or pretend it doesn’t exist. So how can we welcome fully the weakness of another if we haven’t welcomed our own weakness? The work that Madison and others are doing with dance helps create new ways to encourage new perceptions about people with disabilities, while perhaps learning how to embrace the weakness that can disable the able on the inside.

One of my favorite hero’s of the faith is Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche a network of homes where people with developmental disabilities, volunteers and a sprinkling of staff live together in community. L’Arche began in 1964 when Jean Vanier invited two mentally handicapped persons  to live with him in a small home in Trosly-Breuil, France. Vanier named the house L’Arche after Noah’s Ark, symbolizing a place of welcoming for all people and a time for new beginnings. Today there are 131 communities in 34 countries.

Jean Vanier once wrote, “The deepest desire for us all is to be appreciated, to be loved, and to be seen as somebody of value.  When you love people, you want to be together. The first meeting I had with people with disabilities, what touched me was their cry for relationship. Some of them had been in a psychiatric hospital. All of them had lived with pain and the pain of rejection. One of the words of Jesus to Peter at the end of the gospel of Saint John is “Do you love me?” So, thus, the cry of God saying, “Do you love me?” and the cry of people who have been wounded, put aside, who have lost trust in themselves, they’ve been considered as mad and all the rest. And their cry too is, “Do you love me?” And it’s these two cries that come together.” Reading these words remind me that love is the power which flows from God to us and from us to others. For my self I have come to believe that Life is about the amount of love that we put in what we do that makes it a profound experience.

I once heard Madison share a series of Metaphors for dance that she had written for a writing assignment for school. She wrote that for her dance is  a swirl of lights…a dream or story expressed on stage. Dance is a spring flower being moved about by the wind. Dance is a sea of color and movement. Dance is being out in the grass letting the wind direct your steps. Dance is like the gentle sway and rock of the ocean. I love that Madison has been sharing her ability with those with disabilities. I now have come to believe that dance is a wonderful metaphor for our need for others in life. I am proud of my daughter. Click below to see some of the “Share Ability” workshop

A Sustainable design

A Make Believe Story… by Kari Wanenmacher

This article is from a Make Believe student, who graduated from our course in Dallas Tx. Kari has been working to live out the vocational map that She developed in our course. The v-map is the compilation of a person’s mission, vision, and purpose, and is designed to help with the whole-life transformation a person desires for their life.

When Ken asked me to write about my experience in the Make course I said sure, I mean, why not, no big deal, right?  But then, the next day, reality set in- I had actually agreed to write about this huge mind blowing, life changing experience that I honestly have yet to really be able to intelligently explain to my friends.  What have I agreed to?!  Where do you begin explaining something like this?  After a little bit of thought & prayer, it seemed like the logical place to start is in the beginning of this journey, about 2 years ago when I went to visit my friends Jeff and Rebecca in New Haven.  I just mentioned to them in passing that I had always been interested in pursuing interior design, but I kind of just considered it a pie in the sky type of dream, nothing that would ever really happen.  But, my friend Jeff, who had already gone through the Make course, took that and ran with it.  He had a better grasp than I did of the importance of the dreams we have and the realities they can become.  Jeff printed off all of this information on Interior Design schools and told me that the Make course was coming to Dallas in a few months and that I had to attend.  I said I would think about it, but honestly inside I was thinking, “Um, isn’t that the class that all the uber spiritual, philosophical people attend?  …yeah, I am not sure if that is the place for me”.  I flew back to Dallas that afternoon and the next morning I found out I was going to be laid off from my 11 year career in the mortgage industry (we serviced subprime mortgages…go figure).  I sent off my application for the Make course that week.  God’s timing was perfect; he was not so gently nudging me into taking the first step towards my dreams.

One of the most integral things I learned during Make was that God loves our dreams- he is our Daddy and just like any loving father, he adores watching us run and jump and play, and He wants to be a part of that with us.  Genesis 2:19 says “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.  He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name”.  I had read this passage so many times, but the thing that had never struck me before is that God allowed Adam to name all of the beautiful animals he had just created.  Wow, He really cared what Adam thought the animals names should be?  He wanted to give Adam that freedom, that privilege; He wanted to create something with Adam?  One of my favorite Ken Janke quotes ever came from the Make course, “If you don’t live for the world’s rewards, you don’t have to live by the world’s rules.”  If I am not out there trying to be what everyone else wants me to be or thinks I should be so I can gain their acceptance, I can focus on Jesus.  And, I am free to pursue my dreams with him.  He cares about the desires of my heart.  He looks at me and His heart swells with love for His child, beautifully and wonderfully made.  It is so amazingly freeing to know this.

Throughout the course I could feel my heart expanding and my view of the world enlarging.  I was asked to look at things through perspectives other than my own, to see beyond the immediate, and to find equal value in not only the lives that touch mine, but also in those that I will probably never even know.  I was encouraged to examine community and what I am committed to, to ask God to help me write a mission statement for my life, and these are just a few of the things we covered in the course.   I am not going to lie to you, the process was hard.  I was exhausted and there were times that I couldn’t even talk to anyone because my mind was so busy processing all of these new ideas.  But, it was so completely worth the investment of my time, my money and my heart.  I am changed.  I am not perfect, but I now know that I can dream and maybe I will fail, maybe I will succeed, but God is right beside me holding my hand.

Initially, at the beginning of this journey, I didn’t really think there would be any way I could afford to go to school to pursue design- the college that had classes at night was far too expensive, and the schools that were affordable only had classes during the day when I should be at work.  But, through the amazing, unexpected, unrequested generosity of my earthly father, my heavenly Father has provided for all of my financial needs.  I graduate in May with an associate degree from an accredited Interior Design school.  In June I will take the LEED exam, so I will be certified to work on sustainable/green design projects.  It is amazing what can happen when you don’t shove aside the desires of your heart, and you actually realize that God is asking you to co-create something wonderful with Him.